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A review by kaleyamo
Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn, David Levithan
2.0
2.5 stars
I really wanted to like this book, but I had so many problems with it. If I wasn't reading it to fill a task for a reading challenge, I probably would have DNF'd it.
The positive —
There were some characters I liked. Bruce (both the First and the Second), boy Robin, and girl Robin.
The negative —
Naomi and Ely were both terrible . . . and as the two main characters, it's kind of hard to forgive.
1. When Naomi and Ely were having their big fight, I did not love her internal dialogue. For someone whose best friend is gay...she sure uses a lot of hateful language. (I.e., the f****t word.) Yikes.
2. Ely acted like he did nothing wrong when he kissed his best friend's boyfriend.
SO. MANY. POVS. In a book this short, I don't really understand the point. There were so many wasted chapters on insights of characters who were hardly mentioned elsewhere. I really think it would have benefited from sticking to Naomi and Ely. And maybe Bruce the Second.
I think my biggest problem is that it feels like the book didn't really go anywhere. There was one "revelation" — that shouldn't really have been a revelation at this point since these people are ADULTS — and that was it. Not a whole bunch of character growth.... It just fell flat.
I really wanted to like this book, but I had so many problems with it. If I wasn't reading it to fill a task for a reading challenge, I probably would have DNF'd it.
The positive —
There were some characters I liked. Bruce (both the First and the Second), boy Robin, and girl Robin.
The negative —
Naomi and Ely were both terrible . . . and as the two main characters, it's kind of hard to forgive.
1. When Naomi and Ely were having their big fight, I did not love her internal dialogue. For someone whose best friend is gay...she sure uses a lot of hateful language. (I.e., the f****t word.) Yikes.
2. Ely acted like he did nothing wrong when he kissed his best friend's boyfriend.
Spoiler
And then at the end, Naomi said Ely "did nothing wrong." Maybe they're bigger people than me but, no, if my friend is kissing MY significant other...they are both doing something wrong.SO. MANY. POVS. In a book this short, I don't really understand the point. There were so many wasted chapters on insights of characters who were hardly mentioned elsewhere. I really think it would have benefited from sticking to Naomi and Ely. And maybe Bruce the Second.
I think my biggest problem is that it feels like the book didn't really go anywhere. There was one "revelation" — that shouldn't really have been a revelation at this point since these people are ADULTS — and that was it. Not a whole bunch of character growth.... It just fell flat.